I was searching for some information on Wenham Lake Ice and stumbled across this article in The Food Journal, published in London in 1873. Wenham is a lake in Massachusetts and its ice was famous and exported to London (I have some interesting info about that in Doctors and Distillers),... Read more →
I did a new ice thing. I found online these Roks Silicone Ice Cube Tray Inserts, which press shapes, numbers, letters, etc into ice cubes. However, the trays they sell with them make cloudy ice. So I put them on top of my IceOlogy trays facing down so that it... Read more →
I recently bought some ice cube trays from W&P Design. They have some funky new ones in blingy cubes and a star shape: But of course if you just fill them with water and freeze them normally they'll come out all cloudy and ugly: So I had planned to freeze... Read more →
I decided to measure the rate of freezing of an ice block in my (pretty crappy) freezer at home. It's just a standard apartment freezer. For all four times, I began with the same set of parameters: Igloo Legend 12 cooler 6 liters of cold tap water (this fills up... Read more →
There's not an entry about me in the new Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails - surely an oversight - but there is one by me. I was asked to write the entry for "Ice, Science of its Use." I did it in two and a half pages that took... Read more →
Nobody gave me a huge diamond chain for the holidays this year, so I had to make my own. I used the typical cooler method for directional freezing, and Put a clear plastic box with holes drilled in the bottom in the cooler. The holes allow trapped air/impurities to be... Read more →
Years ago I learned how to cut up slabs of ice using only an ice pick, but boy have I improved my technique since then. But the method is the same: Fill a cooler with water and put it in the freezer with the top off. After a couple days... Read more →
I decided to try to make shot glasses out of ice slabs made in a cooler. I froze water, cut it into big cubes and then bought a 1.5 inch drill bit. I was surprised to find how easy it was after that. I drilled a hole in the middle... Read more →